Another 5K

Time to Fly Run5K Results Jun 28th, 2008 - St. Paul, MN

#.......Name...............OVERALL......TIME......PACE

4773...Nick Bassett..........129/456............26:31..........8:32
4753...Carl Iverson..........152/456............27:13..........8:46
4770...Eric Iverson..........153/456............27:14..........8:46

4769...Jennifer Jensen....367/456............35:15.........11:21

I ran my first 5K back in April with a finish time of 36:11. I have run four times since then, so I was quite pleased with the latest finish time, shaving off almost an entire minute. I ran with my two older brothers, Eric and Carl, and Nick, my 12 year old nephew/godson. We had a small fan section--Mom, Dad, Steve (Nick's Dad) and Miles (Carl's 21 month old son).

(Eric, Carl, me and Nick before the race)

The weather was fabulous--high 60s and cloudy with a slight breeze. An isolated shower came in just as I was coming in at the finish. The course was a simple layout--long leg out, long leg back with a downhill entry to the finish. What a way to kick it into high gear for the final stretch.

My problem this race was that at about the 2 mile mark, I had to pee so damn bad. So I didn't dare pick up the pace lest I wet myself. So I held out until the end with my final burst. I bee-lined it to the biffy as quickly as I could after I ran through the finish chute. The port-o-potty couldn't have been a sweeter sight to my eyes.

(After the race)

Anyway, another race has been chalked up; my third registered run. I think I've caught the running bug. I've got a couple more coming up in September and I'll have to see what's out there for July / August. Anyone interested?

Woot-woot!

A whole lotta family lovin' going on...

Yep, for the first time in four years, my entire family will be reunited. Four years ago, there were 16 of us; now there are 20. Carl and family from Houston are coming for a visit this weekend. That means there will be a lot of family togetherness going on.

This evening begins the fun: we're invited over to my parents after 7 pm to see Carl and son Miles. Carl's wife, Claire will be arriving tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, I run a 5K with my Eric, Carl and our 12-year old nephew Nick. I am pretty sure I will start the race with the boys, but will be about ten minutes behind them at the finish. That's just fine by me.

Saturday evening, it's the Iverson Family Singers leading the music at Mass. Two nephews are alter boys. The non-singing sibling, Carl will be the lector. We then have dinner at Jeanine's house.

Sunday is my parents' 45th wedding anniversary. Amazing! We will be having a (hopefully) quiet dinner at the parents' house. It will be a collaborative effort. My contribution? I am in charge of providing the kids' meal for 8 kids ranging from 22 months to 13 years' old. Hmm, what to make...

I hope your weekend plans are a little less involved than ours are. Or on the flipside, I hope it's just as fulfilling. I'd like to hear what you've got planned, so drop a comment.

Have a good one!

One of the most independent senators...

I'll say! They are so far gone that his wife couldn't even be in the same room with him--literally. Crappy graphic effects...

Kyle's back home!

Kyle was discharged from the hospital shortly after lunch today. Our first stop was to see the kids. Max was down for a nap, but Cate was SO excited to see her daddy. She was really bubbly and had just finished cutting paper hearts she decorated and stickered for Kyle. He was so touched by her present for him. We visited for about an hour and Cate was ready for her nap. I finally remembered to bring over her sleeping bag I promised to bring her way back on Saturday night and again last night. I think she took a good rest in her sleeping bag.





Once home, Kyle got cleaned up then laid down for a nap while I worked on, well, work. Mom sent me home with a container of her homemade chicken noodle soup, so we enjoyed a quiet dinner at home, which was really nice. His first blood test at home was in the normal range. Yay!

To the right are all of the blood testing gadgets Kyle gets to try out to find a favorite...

Since we missed Max earlier, Kyle wanted to go back to see the kids again. Max giggled and gave him a big hug around the legs. Jolene was there was well, so we caught up on how her trip to Colorado with the Bassetts went.

Once the kids were in their bath (they're staying with my parents one more night), we went to Target to pick up a few things and we are now settled in for the evening and going to bed very soon. We both still have some sleep to catch up on.

Tomorrow we are both still at home. Kyle is still feeling some fatigue, so we want to ease him back into the day-to-day. We also want to ensure his blood sugar continues to remain where it should be and then we should be good to get back to work.

The kids will be coming home tomorrow. I think they'll be very happy to be home. So are we.

Kyle in the ICU: no longer

However, I wasn't able to bring him home tonight. His heart rate is still too high, his blood sugar is still not regulated (too high) and he is still showing signs of dehydration. At last count, I think he was on his thirteenth liter of fluids. His last blood sugar draw was 279. His heart rate still above 100. I intended to stay with Kyle until a decision had been made about whether to downgrade him out of ICU or release him and then I would spend time with the kids. Unfortunately, that decision didn't happen until 7:15 pm.

Kyle is looking and sounding like his sweet self again, but doesn't have much of an appetite yet. On the bright side, he did eat almost all of his dinner and he especially enjoyed his vanilla ice cream cup.

His parents, Ken and Katie visited around noon. Kurt, Amy and Thora (Kyle's brother & wife with daughter) stopped by in the early evening. They stayed so I could leave and say goodnight to my two children who are staying at my parents' house tonight. Cate and Max are so unknowingly and wonderfully understandable about this situation, for which I am quite grateful.

Three cool things about today:

1) We learned that Kyle's cousin, Joe Wipper, son of Char Waughtel, works as an orderly at Methodist Hospital. It has been several years since we last saw him, so it was nice to chat it up with him. He offered to check on our transfer / discharge situation and said he would be there to help us when it was time. Unfortunately, we found out Kyle's next move about four hours after Joe's shift ended. Oh well, it was still nice to see such a friendly face checking in.

2) Kyle got all washed up today. I even gave him a shampoo in the sink with Aveda Rosemery Mint shampoo (it only comes out on special occasions). He smells much better now! More importantly, it helped him feel better. Now, if I could just convince him to let me shave his scruff...

3) I don't think I cried today.

Thanks again for all of your well wishes. I am looking forward to getting back to my usual ramblings in the very near future.

Kyle in the ICU; Part 3

We got a 6 am visit from the ON Doctor on the floor. Since Kyle hasn't really been eating much of anything yet, the Dr. kept some glucose running in his fluids, hence why the blood sugar level has elevated again after taking him off the insulin drip.

After some education, the doctor's recommendation is that Kyle would be able to go home today. All levels of labs are returning close to normal.

In the past 36 hours, he has had over 10 liters of fluids pumped through, yet his kidneys are still a bit dry. But, he is on his last bag of fluid--finally. It will be up to us to ensure he's keeping hydrated. Clue to all not familiar with diabetes (including myself even after knowing Kyle living with the disease all these 17 years)--keeping hydrated is just as critical as the insulin and diet is in managing the disease. The rest of you can now say, "duh!"

Kyle's next job is to get the blood flowing and moving around. He would really like it if he could ditch the heart monitor--6 wires attached to his chest--so he could feel less tied down to the bed. On a personal note, I would be quite alright if they moved him down to a regular room through today so we could see him monitored in a "normal" situation: getting nutrients the old-fashioned way, taking insulin shots, checking blood levels and walking around. I guess we shall see as the day goes.

Thank you to those who have been checking in--we appreciate your thoughts and prayers. As partners going through this incident, I think it was severely reinforced to us that diabetes can't just be managed through a random increase in insulin units from time to time. We knew that; we just weren't living it well at all. It's funny how easy it is to take our health for granted.

Hopefully, this will be the last post from the ICU. Keep your fingers crossed...

Kyle in the ICU; part 2

I'm clicking this through on my Blackberry because I am having issues with my laptop. You will certainly see that doesn't stop me from typing any less.

The insulin drip phase seems to be over. As I was settling in for the evening, Kyle got his first short-term insulin injection. The NA did his blood test and it tracked high--mid-200s. Normal should be from 80-120. At one point in the final stages of the insulin drip, his reading was 67. I am guessing the staff will be testing out what is the correct balance of food to insulin.

One of the earlier blood tests also indicated a high white blood cell count--an indicator of a virus or infection I guess. So he had a chest xray and a sinus xray done at 1:30 pm; we haven't heard any specific callouts on the results. But as the nurse just indicated, no news is good news. Kyle also noted his throat is bothering him, so they're watching that as well. My personal guess is that's an after-effect of Thursday's puke fest.

Still no word as to when Kyle will be downgraded from ICU or discharged. Aside from being tired and not having much of an appetite, Kyle's spirit is returning. Very happy to see his personality back.

The kids are staying with Kyle's parents tonight and I am Kyle's roommate--roles' reversed from when I gave birth to the babies.

I am looking forward to tomorrow--I would expect we'll get some update as to when we might move towards a discharge.

Kyle in the ICU

Without trying to go into too much detail, Kyle became quite ill Thursday with stomach flu symptons that didn't let up on Friday. After no improvement in his condition, I finally brought him to the ER around midnight today. Or yesterday. Whatever. Let's just say we checked in 23:59:59 Friday evening.

What was first thought to be the stomach flu turned out to be a critically high blood sugar level complicated by a high heart rate. Kyle has been living with Type I diabetes for over seventeen years. Thankfully to this point, this is the first incident where he has required medical attention since the initial diagnosis. So you can imagine, how surreal it was when the M.D. on call told us Kyle was going to be admitted to the ICU.

He is being treated right now with fluids and an insulin drip to bring down his levels. His heart rate continues to be monitored. I hope to get an update from the M.D. on rotation as soon as possible.

Kyle will recover from this. But this is a rude awakening for me and the family that managing all aspects of the disease is the key to living a long, full life--regardless of how good you think you are feeling.

Keep Kyle and his family in your prayers.

Thanks.

My little tee-baller

Tee-ball is the first team activity Cate is participating in. Last night was the first night. We all went down to the local neighborhood park, signed the medical release form in exchange for a yellow "Banana Splits" team t-shirt and then we walked over to the field.

(Cate in her "Banana Splits" team t-shirt)

We enjoyed a picnic (thanks, Subway and Kraft Lunchables!) before her team was called up for practice and the first game. I never experienced tee-ball first-hand as a kid--I went straight to softball in fifth grade, which was a disaster. If you have heard of any stories about tee-ball and the cute little kids with over-sized gloves running all over the field, it is all true.

(Max watching the action on the field)

My girl was the prima-donna of the players. She was getting so ticked that nobody was letting her get the ball. There was one moment where she took off her hat and threw it to the ground, crossed her arms and grumbled at the coach. That's my girl!

(Cate on the bench with her teammates)

Every game will be an opportunity to teach her a new lesson. After yesterday's game, I explained to her that she is part of a team and that everyone needs a chance to stop the ball. She'll get her turn.

For those of you wondering who won? They don't keep score. Rather, everyone gets to bat and everyone gets to run all the bases. Oh well.

Until next week...

("Good Game!")

Something you should avoid

I would strongly recommend refraining from carb-loading less than thirty minutes before you run. Because you kinda feel sick when you are running.

Yeah, my bad.

I had leftover gnocchi and Chicken Parmesan from Maggiano's for dinner. Then we left for the lake. Kyle took Max in the stroller and Cate on her bike and they headed one direction around the lake, while I went the other direction. It's been a while--over two weeks since I really had some good exercise. So I ended up walking a couple of times. Still, I made it around the 2.75 mile lake in approximately 33 minutes. I'm okay with that.

And I learned my lesson.

Eighty minutes

It was eighty minutes from lights out to the last cry from the kids' room this evening. I had to put Max back into bed countless times over. Cate ended up in the naughty corner three times. But...I didn't lose my cool. At least not visibly in front of them. One mini-victory right there.

And here they are now...

Do any of you out there have any suggestions for me on how the bedtime situation can be improved? Our bedtime routine is pretty simple and generally consistent: bathroom duties start at 8:00 (potty, wash hands, brush teeth, final drink of water), change into pj's and tossing clothes down the laundry chute. Into bed they go. Hugs, kisses, light out, and musical snowglobe wound up to play once. Any advice would be appreciated.

Monkey Max

We have been so, so lucky that the kids' bedtime routine has been going rather smoothly for the past two years. Our lucky streak may be coming to a screeching halt.

In one day, Max figured out how to:

• climb the ladder to Cate's upper bunk.
• turn the doorknob to open a door.

Ugh!

There was a lot of in and out with the kids last night. Cate would holler, "Daddy!" and Kyle would walk in with Cate tattling that Max had climbed up on her bunk.

Again. And again. And again.

Then Max started opening the door and stood in the doorway with just about the same look as in this photo . Mischief was written all over his face. So Kyle moved him to our room. After Max had gotten up two more times, Kyle became completely exasperated and gave him his pacifier with a threat, "now go to sleep or I will take away your sucker!", at which Max hunkered down in our bed, safekeeping the pacifier in his mouth.

Tonight I'm solo on bedtime detail as Kyle is away golfing (lucky guy!). These type of antics usually only happen when both of us are home versus only one being at home, so I'm already anticipating what will possibly happen tonight. Wish me luck!

Church, Stories, Rides, Games, Dinner

One Sunday each summer, our church participates in the local ecumenical church service schedule at the Lake Harriet Bandshell. This year, our church partnered with Christ the King, a neighboring parish. Participation in the service is a family affair: my dad, Jolene, Jeanine, and Jeanine's son, Jack all sang in the choir; Mom coordinated a variety of volunteers; we stayed to pour lemonade. Cate thought "outside church" was interesting. My nephew Charlie accompanied Max and Cate up for Children's Time, a moment after the homily that I have yet to see a Catholic community do successfully. Yet another, all too long presentation by a lay person who expects little ones to have more than five minute attention spans. Cate was out of there in less than two minutes. Oh well. The freedom of an open worship space, I guess.

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After the service, it was "Jack time." For Jack's birthday last August, our gift to him was the gift of time. We finally made good on the gift. We enjoyed lunch at D'Amico & Sons. On the way back to our house, Cate convinced Jack to tell her a story. For a guy who said he didn't tell very good stories, he sure had the car laughing non-stop.

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After dropping Kyle and the kids home, Jack and I headed off to the Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America for some indoor amusement fun. It's been a long time since I've been to an amusement park and I really had a great time. As an adult, it's important to just get into the mood and channel your inner kid. It rocked!

We hit all the 6 point rides (the highest thrill rides vs 0 point rides for families or little tots). Our mutual favorite ride was the "Avatar Bender." I think I left my stomach on that ride. Jack had the shakes afterwards. On our last ride, we rode with another very charismatic young teen who said his parents didn't like riding these sort of rides. So as we sat in our car waiting for the ride to begin, I said I hoped I didn't embarrass him with all of my screaming. His reply: "My parents are WAY more embarrassing!" Hmm, so I'm only slightly embarrassing...I'll take it! When I brought Jack back to his house, he so graciously thanked me for such an awesome time and gave me a huge hug. It was an impressive act of appreciation for an almost fourteen-year-old, I'd say.

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We had yet another fabulous dinner menu planned, so we wanted to share our experience. My mom was away quilting, so we invited my dad over. It was a last minute call, so I was very pleased when he agreed to come over. Our timing was off, but he was more than happy to play with the kids while we pulled everything together. He was an incredibly good sport and played "Candyland" with the kids--Max's first time. I don't know who won, but there was peace and harmony flowing from the living room, so who really cares!
Our dinner was fantastic--marinated flank steak, roasted potatoes (Coleman's: we're addicted!), green beans, baguettes. The only thing not-so-great was dessert: a banana / chocolate chip cake I made from an "Amish Friendship Bread" batter. It had good flavor, but it was too moist in texture.

Papa left after dinner and we got the kids ready for bed. Max is short on summer pj's, so I'm still squishing him into onesies. Poor guy, it's as if I'm secretly trying to shorten his torso and re-distribute his body proportions!
Cate played with her "friends" in the top bunk until Max was ready to go to bed as well.
After many "Mommy!" and "Daddy!" hollers from behind the closed door, it seems they have finally settled in for the evening. I think they were just like us--they didn't want the great weekend to end.

Saturday morning fun & evening s'mores goodness

Today was a lazy day. It was a great day. The weather forecast indicated high chance of thunderstorms and that just never happened. I went to my WW meeting this morning and upon my return, the kids (big kid Kyle and little kids, Cate and Max) were all staring at the cartoons on TV. After breakfast, we all took our showers. This is how I found the kids playing after getting dressed for the day:

When we did get out of the house, we walked around at a park reserve, enjoyed pizza for lunch, ran a few errands, took naps or went to the park and then dinner time snuck up on us. Conveniently, my sister Jolene called wanting to know the name of a particular restaurant. She was intending to go out for dinner, but my invite for her to have dinner with us at our house instead sounded good so she came over with a bottle of wine in hand just as the food was hitting the table. We enjoyed chicken breasts marinated in a caribbean jerk sauce, spanish rice, green beans and a rustic baguette. For dessert, Kyle toasted marshmallows over the smoldering coals to make s'mores. This was Max's first s'mores experience. At first, he didn't know what to do with the gooey marshmallow. Eventually, I convinced him to take a bite. It was all over from there...

(taste-testing the marshmallow)

(starting to get into it)

(Cate, the professional s'more eater, with the rookie)

(Jolene loving the s'more as well)

(Max cracking up at something Jolene did)

(messy hands is all that's left)

The Kenny School Carnival

We went to the Cate's future school's carnival this evening. She had a lot of fun and, for me, the coolest thing was that the girls she was playing with this past weekend recognized her and excitedly said hello to her. Nonetheless, she chose to stay with me and we checked out all of the booths. She got her face painted, hair beads put in (purple, her favorite color), played some games to win prizes and bought a few items at the "general store".

Max was a freak about wanting to get into the moon walk castle. We had to wait through two three-minute sessions before it was our turn. Tears were rolling and he was shaking because he couldn't get in there soon enough. For him, it was like being in the naughty corner three times over. Once his turn came up, he was grinning from ear to ear, drooling because his smile was so big. I dreaded the moment when his three minutes was up. He refused to come out, so I had to go in to get a very spastic boy out of there. He just never recovered for the rest of the evening. So eventually, Kyle and Max went out to the car while Cate and I frittered away her tickets.

I was relieved that when I was ready to go, Cate was ready as well. I anticipated a struggle from her, but I actually think she was a bit overwhelmed by all of the kids and grown-ups bustling around and just wanted to get back to our quiet home.

It also made bedtime smoother too! Go figure...

Cate insisted I take her picture with all of her new accessories:

Me and my ShopNBC girls

After the 5K on Saturday, I had lunch with my girlfriends from ShopNBC. Suzanne had her camera, so here's a shot of all the lovely ladies...

( from left to right: Kathleen and daughter Tori, me, Melanie, Suzanne, Kelly)

Thanks ladies for a wonderful catch-up time. I am looking forward to seeing you all again very soon.

Some storm!

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the city as evidenced by my run in the morning. But things changed in the late afternoon. Jen came over to watch our kids so we could sing at Mass. When we were ready to get back home, someone said it had been hailing outside. We had no idea it had even stormed while in church. The hail seemed to have subsided, so we ran for the car. We got about ten blocks and the hail hit again. Man, was it loud in the car! We tried to get under a tree, but didn't get to one that was big enough to shelter us. So we sat there for about five minutes, and watched the hail accumulate on the ground. I could do nothing but laugh as I had never seen so much hail in my life. It was probably nickel sized-hail.

The hail finally stopped and we got home to make sure everyone was okay in the house. Everyone was fine. Then we took a better look around. I got the kids cups so they could collect some of the hail. They were amazed by the huge tree that had fallen across the street from us. Because of all the noise the hail made, they hadn't even heard the tree fall! Our neighbor was the one who noticed our tree was stripped of all its leaves. The gardens we just planted last week were pelted pretty hard. We're not sure how everything will recover. We'll just give it time.

(The tree across the street from our house)

(Cate and Max ready to collect some hail)

(Max looking up at our now leafless tree)

(Our now leafless tree)

(Our poor hosta garden)

(Cate showing off her cup of hail)

Today we spent the day cleaning up--raking, sweeping, bagging, washing, mowing. It was a good thing we didn't have any other firm plans for the day. Cate and Max climbed in and around the fallen tree making friends with neighbor kids, which was long overdue. So Cate ended up spending a good deal of her day running back and forth with her newfound friends, some of whom go to the same school she will be going to in the fall. We hope this will only be the first of her fun with friends this summer.

Clearly, I have lived a very "cush" life. I have blisters on my hands and sore arms from the work and the sun, but it's alright by me. And as my dad always says after a long, productive day, "the bed is going to feel good tonight!"